Innovations don't happen alone
Let's imagine the situation. You've been assigned to think about new ways to develop skills and you've set aside a couple of hours of quiet time on Wednesday morning for this brainstorming. A couple of hours go by and all those flipcharts and post-its you reserved for the exercise are still full of already tried methods. Why? Because real innovations are not created alone, but together with others.
Innovation is rarely something completely new, unpredictable, or requiring doctoral studies. It arises from ideas that have worked in a completely different situation in some way and, when applied, could work again in a new way, resulting in even better results. That is why the idea-to-innovation process, instead of an individual, requires a group of people who are ready to throw their ideas out there – be they good, easy, wild, dull, or whatever.
Three innovation killers
However, innovation often comes to a standstill right at the beginning, because the group does not have the ability or desire to think about things from new perspectivesThere are many reasons, but in simplified terms they can be divided into three parts – assumptions, uncertainty and to take for granted.
Assumptions are what we do every day as individuals based on our experiences of things that we don't fully understand or know for sure. Such an idea is, for example, "That can't work because it didn't work there either"You can't get rid of this even in a group if the group is full of people who are too similar.
Uncertainty occurs when an individual or group is unable to be sufficiently honest and open with each other. If the idea-to-innovation process could ultimately lead to a situation where the value of one's current expertise collapses or it causes significantly more work, it is often easier for the individual to just keep quiet and then no innovations can be created.
On the other hand, sometimes it can simply be a matter of leaving things unsaid because everyone knows this – "That's obvious!". But it's not, because we humans don't always know what we know or don't know. So sometimes you have to remember to state the things that are obvious to you out loud, so that others can learn and perhaps refine innovation from that obvious statement.
What helps create innovations?
Creating innovations requires three things:
- Promises to come up with ideas and throw out unfinished things
- A diverse group of people from different backgrounds (and mutual trust!)
- Time for thinking
As a supervisor, as a facilitator or HR manager, this means that you need to lead your team's ideation and innovation capabilities and create spaces for open wonder.
So first, you should find some “free time” in your calendar for your group to brainstorm ideas with a diverse group of participants. After this, it is your responsibility to increase the group’s courage and ability to weed out unnecessary criticism and instead support a culture of experimentation.
Experiments are then reflected on together after a short period of experimentation, based on which a decision is made to either continue, refine or stop the experiment. And yes, some ideas will definitely fail completely and mistakes will certainly happen – You just have to endure them and learn from them..
Are your own resources sufficient?
The fact is that all of this requires time and perhaps even new skills. You don't have to do everything yourself, but in this as in many other things in change it is ultimately about active leadershipOf course, at the same time, you also have to remember to set an example yourself and be open to new ideas and thoughts and not immediately reject even the wildest ideas.
So at the very least, make sure there is time for innovation management. and, if necessary, use other experts in the organization or external partners to support the things that you can outsource or delegate – such as facilitation or developing working life skills. The worst thing you can do as a leader is to burn yourself out while developing your ability to generate ideas and innovate – when you are burned out, your ability to innovate is rarely at its peak.
Towards ideas and innovations!
PS: Do you need thoughts in video format? Go watch it. From YouTube our Short videos on topics such as innovation – or watch the video below about the team's ideation!
